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The Fieseler Fi 103 was a low-cost, unpiloted German flying bomb powered by a loud, buzzy, pulse-jet engine. Many struck Britain and Belgium in the last year of World War II, killing thousands.
Also called the V-1 – for Vergeltungswaffe-1, meaning Retaliation Weapon 1 – by the Nazis, it was nicknamed the ‘doodlebug’ by the Allies.
The origin of the nickname is not clear, but may have been applied by US troops in Britain. The sound created by the Fi 103’s stuttering engine may have reminded them of the flying insect known as a doodlebug. A similar theory holds that the nickname came from an Australian insect. Yet another credits an RAF pilot for the name.
No matter the derivation, the term was in use by mid-1944. On 22 June 1944, The Times stated that ‘the first fighter pilot to shoot down what the RAF men call a “doodlebug” was Flight Sergeant Maurice Rose, of Glasgow’. Several nicknames were being used by Londoners that same year. ‘The new weapon with which our enemy has attacked us has borne a number of names since its appearance over Southern England on 13 June,’ reported Notes & Queries on 9 September 1944, including ‘doodle bug, doodle bomb or simply doodle’.
The first doodlebug attacks on Britain came in mid-June 1944. To destroy them, the RAF deployed a balloon barrage, anti-aircraft guns, and especially fast Hawker Tempest fighters. These latter could eliminate doodlebugs with cannons, or even by tipping them over.
The doodlebug, bearing an 1,870lb warhead up to 150 miles, was an inaccurate terror weapon. Most were launched at England from ground sites, but some were shot from Heinkel He 111 bombers. By the time the doodlebug was operational, it could not alter the war’s outcome, but nevertheless it caused carnage.
